From Ojibwa to Dakota: Toward a Typology of Semantic Transformations in American Indian Languages

In this article we propose a radical new typological approach to the diversity of North American languages that is directly inspired by Claude Lévi-Strauss’s Mythologiques and his concept of transformation. As with mythology, the semantic dimension of phenomena is crucial. A comparison between the grammars of an Algonquian and a Siouan language will serve as a first illustration of the logical transformations linking two language families that previously have been considered to be fundamentally distinct. A parallel appears between the results obtained and those stemming from a comparison between the principal ritual manifestations of Sioux culture and Subarctic Algonquian culture.